Jackson’s Ceramic Palette can be used with watercolour, inks, and dyes. Made from porcelain, it is easy to clean, will not stain, and will keep your paints wet for longer than a plastic palette which means a longer period for wet mixing. In this Artist Review of the Month, watercolour painter Virginia Pope shares how she uses the palette in her watercolour practice.
Artist Review of Jackson’s Ceramic Palette
by Virginia Pope
A studio piece. A thing of beauty is a joy forever. This palette certainly qualifies. The smooth bright whiteness is vital in helping you to clearly see your colours and the adjustments you make when mixing – it’s a pure and simple way of achieving your best result. This palette has weight, without being hefty and it will not move about.
Plastic and metal palettes stain, so the true colour you are trying to achieve becomes a hit-and-miss affair. And as you add water to your paint it doesn’t hold together in one puddle as it does on ceramics, it gets busy, dividing into many sketchy small ones. Chasing these around to fill your brush is time-consuming and distracting, neither of these are welcomed when working in this medium. Ceramics also keep your paint wetter for longer. I now have the king in my ceramic palette collection.
This palette is 5 x 7 in and gives you 21 deceptively deep wells to hold your paint, ink, or dyes and one long well at their base for mixing. My first time using this palette was in conjunction with a portrait. I squeezed out the paint in no set pattern, using plenty of wells to space out my colours. I did place three colours beside one another to see how mindful I had to be to keep them clean, prompted by thoughts of the horrors of messy metal palettes, colours running, polluting one another.
The key to good watercolours is to keep everything clean. This said, you don’t want to have to worry about your palette, just set it up and have the freedom you need to get into your work. I filled the wells half full and wasn’t restricted in my use of brush and water. Work completed, the whole palette was as pristine as it was at the beginning. I put two skin tones, one on each end of the long well at the base and they obediently stayed put. Such scope for individual use. Keep your colours there or change them, make a map with a key, or notice the possibilities of more shades to mix. Evolve your own Damien Hirst!
I am working on illustrations for a book of cartoons called Seeing is Believing. I think a group of paintings in a narrative sequence should be the same colours for each little story. One such contains a crow. I keep his sheen highlights and the blue, red and yellow that make up his black, all safely together in one block.
To top it all off A LID! No more cling film to keep the dust off your paints! An eco-friend. The lid is not meant to fit tightly, and the one I have has an irregularity so it will only fit if you put the right sides together. I like a bit of character. The lid is slightly concave on the top, so convex underneath, ideal for holding your wash. The price is right!
About Virginia Pope
Self-taught West Country artist inspired by nature, best known as animalier. Virginia works in oil, water colour, pastel and mixed media. Recording with passion the vegetative changes on Dartmoor, respecting and rejoicing in the form, and characteristics of animal life.
Virginia learnt to draw and paint with the assistance of teddy bears. Patient sitters, they exhibited successfully with the Stable Gallery, Wandsworth 1986! Moving on to subjects with a pulse, taking the Drawing Prize with the Society of Equestrian Artists, thence followed commissioned work and many successful open, including the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2019, and solo exhibitions. Currently working on a collection of water colour sketches for her next book Seeing is Believing. A close observation and insight into the interaction between wild and farm animals on Dartmoor. Ginnie’s thoughts at the time, smiling, this must be recorded and shared!
Further Reading
Holbein Artists’ Gouache Winter Palette Review
Is Watercolour Better in Pans or Tubes?
The Advantages of Using an Acrylic Palette with a Lid
How to Care For a Wooden Oil Painting Palette
Shop Jackson’s Ceramic Palette on jacksonsart.com
